Early Holiday Shopping

GAINESVILLE-- With Thanksgiving only two weeks away, holiday shopping is soon to start for many people. And for some it's already under way.

"Christmas has evolved from being a religious holiday into a business or economic holiday."

Marsvyen David says that the holiday spirit has changed over the years.

"The driving force between Christmas now is not how it used to be, spending time with friends and family and everything else. It drives the economy. So it becomes an economic holiday. So the earlier you get the more shopping you get into the better it is for the economy. But it has nothing to do with Christmas."

The more shopping you do, the more the economy grows.The people with the Florida Retail Federation say consumer spending brings an average of 70 percent of Florida's gross domestic product.He also says one in ten consumers actually start shopping for the holidays as early as Labor Day.

"Pretty much as soon as Halloween is over I start shopping. Cause normally the decorations are out like right around Halloween time."

"It's kinda crept up earlier and earlier every year based on consumer. So retailers have responded to that, and if you're ready to go and spend money, they're ready to have the cash registers open to ring you up."

Fleming says that retailers will do as much as 20 to 30 percent on average of their entire business for the year during the "holiday shopping period."And that's only the months of November and December…The average shopper will spend between 700 and 800 dollars during those months.

"When people are feeling good about the economy and when they're spending money, that lifts everybody up and it helps us create jobs, and add to our payrolls, and do all those good things that really keep the economy moving along."

Fleming says Thanksgiving shopping trends like "doorbusters" and "early openings" started as experiments a few years ago… but, they are here to stay. Online shopping has also increased over the last couple of years.The people at the Florida Retail Federation say around five to ten percent of all retail sales happen over the internet.